Bikers bring motorway to a standstill

Motors running...Bikers bring the M62 to a halt.

More than 200 bikers and truckers brought the M62 to a standstill this morning in a protest against rising fuel and road tax prices.

Police halted traffic on the westbound carriageway to allow the protesters on to the motorway in one long convoy.

Rush hour traffic tailed back past the Rochdale turnoff and into West Yorkshire as the riders and drivers streamed out of Birch services at 8am and headed for Manchester at a snail’s pace in a procession stretching for more than a mile.

Organisers said they had made the police and Highways Agency aware of the protest, which follows a similar, much bigger, event last year when 1,500 drivers and riders turned out.

One of the organisers, ‘Maverick’, said: “We headed into Manchester and back for about two hours.

“We had bikers from Oldham, Greater Manchester and up to 500 miles away, as well as around 40 truckers who came out in support.

“It is a protest about the price of fuel and road tax.”

A posting on the protest’s Facebook page said: “It’s time we took a stand against those that run the country.

“On July 9, Manchester is closed — come and join us!”

Bikers set off from Birch at a crawl and city centre streets and the busy M62 soon became affected.

Police and the Highways Agency worked to keep disruption to motorists to a minimum.

The demonstration caused five-mile tailbacks from Junction 20 of the M62 with all three lanes left crawling behind the convoy.